Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated cooling system control method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a control method for an integrated cooling system including a water-cooled condenser for an air conditioner equipped within a radiator for electric devices and an air-cooled condenser for an air conditioner which may reduce power consumption.
Description of Related Art
In general, air-conditioning apparatuses include an air-conditioning system for heating/cooling the interior of vehicles.
Those air-conditioning systems, which keep the interior of vehicles pleasant by maintaining the temperature of the interior at appropriate levels regardless of changes in external temperature, heat or cool the interior of vehicles, using a refrigerant that is discharged from a compressor and exchanges heat through an evaporator while circulating through a condenser, a receiver drier, an expansion valve, the evaporator, and the compressor.
That is, in the air-conditioning systems, a high-temperature and high-pressure refrigerant compressed by the compressor condenses through the condenser and reduces the temperature and humidity of an interior by evaporating through the evaporator after passing through the receiver drier and the expansion valve.
Recently, there is a need of developing an environmentally-friendly vehicle that can substantially replace the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicles, with an increasing concern on energy efficiency and the problem with environmental pollution and the environmentally-friendly vehicle generally falls into an electric vehicle driven by a fuel cell or electricity, which is the power source, and a hybrid vehicle driven by an engine and an electric battery.
In electric vehicles, a cooling system that cools the electric parts is provided as a specific closed circuit, in addition to the air-conditioning system, such that the cooling module that is disposed at the front part of the vehicles and supplies a refrigerant or cooling water to the systems is complicated.
Further, when a water-cooled condenser is applied to a vehicle, the circuit for separately supplying cooling water and a refrigerant is complicated and the maximum load conditions and the operation temperatures of the systems are different, such that when the cooling module is cooled in an air-cooled using a cooling fan and running air, the cooling performance of one of the systems is enough but the cooling performance of the other is not enough.
That is, since the air-conditioning system is provided as a closed circuit separate from other cooling systems, when a water-cooled condenser is used, the layout in the small engine room is complicated and the power consumption by the compressor, the cooling fan, and the water pump increases due to the difference in cooling performance according to driving conditions, such that the consumption of electricity increases and the travel distance decreases.
Further, since the maximum load conditions of the cooling system and the air-conditioning system are different, the system is difficult to be controlled in the optimum state, such that the cooling performance of the cooling system and the cooling performance of the air-conditioning system decrease.
The information disclosed in this Background of the Invention section is only for enhancement of understanding of the general background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art already known to a person skilled in the art.